Decisions are difficult. Humans often find themselves deliberating between multiple conflicting alternatives, or frustratingly fixated upon a single option. When faced with a threat, zebrafish larvae don't have that luxury. ...
Ecology
Feb 13, 2023
0
69
Neurons are the fundamental units of the brain and nervous system, the cells responsible for receiving sensory input from the external world, for sending motor commands to our muscles, and for transforming and relaying the ...
Bio & Medicine
Nov 29, 2022
1
192
Temperatures are rising, and one colony of ants will soon have to make a collective decision. Each ant feels the rising heat beneath its feet but carries along as usual until, suddenly, the ants reverse course. The whole ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 20, 2022
1
1655
By measuring brain signals, a neuroscience research group at the University of Tübingen has demonstrated for the first time that corvid songbirds possess subjective experiences. Simultaneously recording behavior and brain ...
Plants & Animals
Sep 25, 2020
39
10065
New research in songbirds sheds more light on the decision-making process in the brain. In this study, researchers discovered that sensory input from the locus coeruleus—the area of the brainstem known primarily for mediating ...
Plants & Animals
Sep 11, 2020
0
4
Electric fish generate electric pulses to communicate with other fish and sense their surroundings. Some species broadcast shorter electric pulses, while others send out long ones. But all that zip-zapping in the water can ...
Plants & Animals
Aug 12, 2020
0
90
Scientists from the Friedrich group have developed a new virtual reality system that allows them to manipulate the sensory environment of adult zebrafish at will, while simultaneously analyzing neural activity. This approach ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 3, 2020
0
52
Rice University synthetic biologists have hacked bacterial sensing with a plug-and-play system that could be used to mix-and-match tens of thousands of sensory inputs and genetic outputs. The technology has wide-ranging implications ...
Biochemistry
May 20, 2019
0
121
All insects use vision to control their position in the air when they fly, but they also integrate information from other senses. Biologists at Lund University have now shown how hawkmoths use mechanosensors in their antennae ...
Plants & Animals
Dec 21, 2018
0
3
We all do it; we all need it—humans and animals alike. Sleep is an essential behavior shared by nearly all animals and disruption of this process is associated with an array of physiological and behavioral deficits. Although ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 23, 2017
5
824
